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In Greece the Armistice of Salonika came into effect ending the participation of Bulgaria on the side of the Central Powers in WW1. The terms of the armistice called for the immediate demobilisation of all Bulgarian military activities and the evacuation of occupied Greek and Serbian territories.

The day broke with familiar mist and at 5.50am the attack on the main Hindenburg Line that lay about the formidable obstacle of the St. Quentin canal was launched. Quite early in the day excellent news came in that the 46^th (North Midland) Division within British IX Corps had skillfully crossed the canal at Bellenglise / Riqueval, thereby relieving pressure on the Australian Corps right flank. Pushing on and heading south-eastwards the Australians were surprised to see British troops from the 4^th Leicester’s (46^th Division) that had managed the extraordinarily difficult crossing of the canal, seizing bridges before they could be blown up (photograph above of the Riqueval bridge). The south entrance to the tunnel was now in Allied hands, but the north still in German. For the Australian Corps Lieut.-Gen. Monash had to amend his plans abandoning the objective of taking the whole Hindenburg Line in one day. Any concern that the enemy might launch a concerted counter-attack against his vulnerable troops astride the canal soon dissipated probably on account of the 46^th Division’s success on the right flank.

The British Second and the French Sixth Armies supported the twelve Belgian Divisions in the Fifth Battle of Ypres re-taking Passchendaele and Zonnebeke in the process.  By the following day Messines was captured and by the 30th September, despite the captured ground becoming another quagmire of mud, all of the high ground around Ypres had been occupied by the Allies. Meanwhile major attacks along the entire front over three days were having its desired effect, and now the British Fourth Army stood poised to break-through the Hindenburg Line at the critical Bellicourt tunnel.

At 5.30am the 27^th American Division fighting within the Australian Corps carried out their attack on the uncaptured Hindenburg Outpost Line under a barrage and aided by tanks. The main objectives were the trench system about Quennemont and Gillemont Farms. The attack by the battle-green Americans failed to take its objectives, and although many men made it to the German trench line they became surrounded until relieved by the Australians two days later. The failure appeared to be down to over eager troops rushing on and not ‘mopping-up’ correctly – a lesson learned the hard way by the British and Australians in 1916 and 1917 – and as a result it compromised the artillery plan for the main assault two days later. Lieut.-Gen. Monash succeeded in getting General Rawlinson to provide additional tanks out of Army reserves to place on the 27^th Division front to bring the infantry up to the barrage. Of the five divisions available to Monash, the Australian 2^nd Division was to remain in Corps reserve but would be brought forward by motor bus to the vicinity of Peronne.

The Meuse-Argonne Offensive began and lasted for 47 days until the signing of the Armistice on the 11^th November and was the largest operation in US military history, involving 1.2 million American soldiers. Commanded by General Pershing it was also the bloodiest operation of the First World War for the American Expeditionary Force who lost over 26,000 men killed. American losses were exacerbated by the inexperience of many of the troops and the tactics used during the early phases of the operation.

With the Australian 1^st Division being withdrawn from the front line following their successful attack three days earlier, orders were received for the 1^st Battalion to return to the front to take part in an attack on the Hindenburg Outpost Line and to do what they saw as the ‘unfinished work of III Corps’ on their flank. All but one member of ‘D’ Company refused to take part in an attack as a protest and 118 members of the company that went missing were subsequently Court Martialed and imprisoned for 10 years for desertion. This was the AIF’s largest incidence of ‘combat refusal’ during the war and was a result of the stresses of prolonged periods of combat. All 118 men were pardoned at the end of the war.

A soaking rain set in two hours before the 5.20am start to attack the Hindenburg Outpost Line (map courtesy of the DVA Anzac Portal), drenching the attackers and defenders alike. The Australian 1^st and 4^th Divisions attacked with two Brigades and with the exception of Grand Priel Woods in front of the 3^rd Brigade no serious opposition was encountered. Under the devastating creeping artillery and machine-gun barrage the first ‘Red Line’ objective across the Corps front was taken by 10am, putting the Australians in possession of the old British front line of March 1918, but still some 1,500 to 2,000 yards from the Hindenburg Outpost Line. Sgt Sexton of the 13^th Battalion took out a field gun and several machine guns for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross. Major General Glasgow’s 1^st Division pushed on without pause and by nightfall had overwhelmed the garrison of the Hindenburg Outpost Line along its front. Major General Maclagan’s 4^th Division also fought its way forward to within 500 yards of that line, but the troops exhausted from crossing difficult terrain and in full view of the enemy, were ordered to rest. Advantage was taken to advance the artillery, and at 11pm the 4^th Division again attacked and after severe fighting also captured the whole of the objective trench system, during which Pte Woods of the 48th Battalion rushed a post and held off a counter-attack earning him the Victoria Cross. A great victory had been achieved with relatively little loss. The 1^st Division, attacking with 2,854 men suffered 490 casualties in total whereas the 4^th Division had 532 casualties from a strength of 3,048. Over 4,200 prisoners were taken in addition to the large numbers of enemy killed or wounded, plus the Corps captured more than 80 guns that had been abandoned by the German Army. As it turned out both the Australian 1^st and 4^th Divisions had fought their last battle in the Great War, finishing in a blaze of glory.

Lieut.-Gen. Monash held a conference with his Commanders that would be involved in the next battle, and the date set for the 18^th September. After the successful manoeuvre battle at Mont St. Quentin the attack on the Hindenburg Outpost Line would revert back to being a set-piece battle similar to that of the 8^th August, though this time there would be just eight tanks supporting the Australians. In order to compensate for the lack of tanks Monash arranged to double the machine gun resources by bringing up complete machine-gun battalions from the 3^rd and 5^th Divisions, giving a total of 256 Vickers Machine Guns on a frontage of 7,000 yards to deliver a dense machine gun barrage that would advance 300 yards ahead of the infantry. Also to try and trick the enemy Monash ordered the creation of dummy tanks, clearly visible to the enemy, to give the impression that there were many more tanks about to attack, thus hastening the defenders abandoning their positions. On the morning of the attack the moon would set at 3.37am and the sun would rise at 6.27am: zero hour was therefore fixed for 5.20am.

General Rawlinson called a conference of his three British 4th Army Corps Commanders – Butler (III), Monash (Australian) and Braithwaite (IX) – at Assevillers to discuss the next series of operations that would take the great Hindenburg Line system comprising the Hindenburg Outpost Line (or Hagricourt Line), the main Hindenburg Line, the support or Le Catelet Line and finally the reserve Beaurevoir Line (map courtesy of the DVA Anzac Portal). The first phase, the taking of the Hindenburg Outpost Line, would be made in conjunction with the British Third Army to the north and the French to the south. The attack would be conducted with just eight Tanks for the Corps on account of the attrition of the previous month, and with no great supply of replacements likely before the end of the month. Although no date for the attack had been yet set, the two Australian Divisions (1st & 4th) needless to say kept pushing their line forward, as they had done throughout the summer, with their highly successful aggressive patrolling or peaceful penetration tactics.

The American Army launched its first great attack of the war against the St. Mihiel Salient on the Alsace front. The offensive was supported by an unprecedented 1,476 Allied aircraft used as part of a coordinated air-ground attack. Within 36 hours, the Americans took 15,000 prisoners and captured over 400 pieces of artillery as the Germans withdrew. From intelligence reports and prisoners taken across the front it was becoming clear that the enemy’s mobile reserves had almost completely been absorbed into the front line. German Division after Division was being disbanded and the strength of the enemy’s remaining Divisions was also rapidly diminishing.